| Title | : | Mama |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0451216717 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780451216717 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 352 |
| Publication | : | First published January 1, 1987 |
| Awards | : | American Book Award (1987) |
Mama Reviews
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As a huge McMillan fan, I'm surprised to be the last (it seems) to read this awesome book!
Wonderful character and setting development. Of all of her novels, this most deserves movie adaption.I will keep my fingers crossed! -
My opinion has changed a lot about this book over the years. I am very shocked that I read this at 12 years old (and was not traumatized by it), and I now completely understand why my mother side eyed me and begrudgingly allowed me to read her copy back then.
I think McMillan did a great job for this to be her first novel, though it's obvious that her writing strengthened with Disappearing Acts and Waiting to Exhale. Lot of tough and heavy themes, and spunky dialogue. Kinda perfect for a book club discussion. -
*3.5 stars rounded up. Our mother and daughters book club pick for February, 2021. Terry McMillan's first book, self-published and promoted, was quite good--her voice comes through clearly and her characterizations are remarkable. The plot might have been tightened up by a good editor but that was to come in her later books.
We were fortunate enough to attend a virtual evening with the author recently, where she read selections from her latest book
It's Not All Downhill from Here and answered questions. It's tempting to see Freda, Mama's oldest daughter, as being based on McMillan herself since there are parallels to her own personal history but she claims not--only that an author writes what she knows and LIES a lot, lol. I will definitely read more of her books. -
The family portrayed here made me feel bad, made me wish for better but certainly felt very real. I think these are people we all know. They may be members of our families. I have 3 copies of this book. Accidentally, I loaned one out and it never came back to me and I kept replacing that copy, lol. This book is just too good not to own. It is a far cry from some the superficial books that I have read that have tried to cover similar subject matter, with not as much success.
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this is one of my favorite books. i have read this at least five times since 1995 and now own it in hardcover. i love the characters and how the author does a great job at creating real emotions and situations for this family and their dynamics.
i think terry mcmillan's best work... -
Una mirada casi documental al desarrollo de una familia, desde que nacen los niños, hasta poco después de que se independizan. Me encantó, pese a no tener un argumento lineal más que la vida misma. Muy bien escrito, aunque también muy duro. La familia es una afroamericana de bajos recursos y el mal rato que pasa me recuerda un poco a "El color púrpura", solo que más moderno, lo que tiene sentido, puesto que éste está ambientado en los años '60 y el otro en los 1900s.
No me pareció, en todo caso, que el tema principal aquí fuera el racismo, sino que más la pobreza. La lucha diaria por salir adelante y todos sus ingratos matices. Sin embargo, tiene también algo muy especial de lo que carecen algunos otros escritos del tipo, y es que está lleno de amor. Pese a todos los errores y daños y abusos físicos y sicológicos... la familia principal, a su manera, se quiere y se respeta y es algo bonito de ver. Hay mucha aceptación y una suerte de ternura sorda. Tiene partes en verdad muy dulces.
Muy bueno, la verdad, tanto que no pude dejarlo pese a que habían salido temporadas enteras nuevas en Netflix de mis series favoritas, jajaja. Me gustó mucho.
Además, es rapidito y fácil de leer, y engancha bastante rápido.
Una cita que destaqué, que al final es la definición de lo tragicómico:
"
-¿Cómo te las arreglas, Curly? Explícame qué tengo que hacer.
- La verdad es que no tienes que hacer gran cosa. Los llevas a un motel, yo suelo ir al Starlight porque queda un poco apartado, te pones ropa un poco sexy, después te la quitas, meneas el culo y en total no les dedicas más que media hora, cuarenta y cinco minutos como mucho. Asegúrate siempre de que utilicen condón, no fuera a ser que te pegasen cualquier cosa, y procura que primero beban algo. Háblales de tus hijos, diles que tienen hambre, que no tienen nada que ponerse para ir a la escuela y que, como te han cortado la luz, ni siquiera los ves - le explicó, muerta de la risa.
- Vamos, Curly, que te hablo en serio.
- Lo sé, lo sé. Era una broma. Sólo exagero un poco. Diles que la cosa puede ser permanente siempre que mejoren tu situacion financiera. -
My Mum bought this for me in '92 when she was at Hillcroft college. I remember it was an quick read in terms of pace and a slice of harsh reality in terms of ambition and attainment of creating a better life as a woman on her own. The sacrifices, the costs to the soul the choices we make. I remember being grateful of my Mum, failings included, and mindful of her struggles in getting us where we were.
I went on to read Disappearing Acts and Waiting to Exhale and whilst these novels were of the same style in writing, Ms McMillan wasn't able to recreate the slice of social commentary as Mama. Which led me to think her inspiration for the story was a little closer to home than the others.... -
Mama; Mildred Peacock, proud black woman! She's broke. Lives in a poverty-stricken neighborhood in a broken down house. After a violent fight, she puts out her no good violently abusive husband!! And rightly so, because even though he didn't have a job, he kept a mistress!! Mama is 27 with 5 children. I loved this book as it was Terry McMillan' first novel!!! It was the hottest book back in the day being read by so many. Also, though this is a sad situation, Mama is portrayed as one who struggles to overcome her plight. This is an easy very good read.
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I read this book as a kid. It was one of the most beautiful story’s I’ve ever read. Reading a story like this will make you respect what mothers go through. I love this book and I recommend it to everyone, but especially working black women and their children. This book is amazing and realistic.
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5 star review because I think Mama is a story that is unflinchingly honest in portraying the struggle of motherhood. Society's expectation of mothers at first glance is eerily simple-do what's best for your child, protect them, love them. How does a mother do this and is there a limit to what a mother should be willing to do in the name of loving one's child/children? Terry McMillan provides an answer to this in Mama. Mildred Peacock Mama to 5 children: Freda (oldest daughter), Money (only son), Bootsey (middle daughter), Doll, and Angel (youngest daughters, not twins). 1964 Point Haven Michigan is not the realized dream of the Great Migration. Mildred's marriage to Crook can best be described as a little love but mostly hate. Their union is defined by physical, emotional, and alcohol/drug abuse. Characteristic of Mildred, she decides to divorce Crook and life goes on.
What resonates with me the most is Mildred's unapologetically flawed (as we all are) and she's fearless. She doesn't retreat into the shadows, when she is ready to love again she does. When she is ready to make a life changing move to Los Angeles, that happens. McMillan doesn't end Mama happily ever after but there is hope for the future of the Peacock family. As the bird itself, it is somewhat plain looking until it spreads its wings and on a spiritual level, the Peacock represents renewal which happens time after time for Mildred and her children. -
Whew! This is some excellent writing here. Probably my favorite by this author. I always did hear good things about it so I am not sure what took me so long to read it. Its a hard book to read a times (the subject matter, not the writing). I am happy that Mama's life wasn't ALL bad. Sometimes I feel like writers make it seem like someone's life is just all bad all the time. And that is definitely true for some folks in real life, especially for poor Black folks, but it gets hard to read sometimes. Glad to see Mama had some good days to go along with the bad.
I think the part that stuck out to me the most were the moments where Mama wanted to reach out and hug her kids and the kids wanted/needed their mom to reach out and hug/comfort them but neither had the language to express this. Its like Mama didn't have these skills to pass down to her children because they weren't passed down to her. I think that is such a powerful observation in families, oftentimes poor or Black ones. Its just like life is sometimes so hard you have to put on this coat of armor just to face the world, and sometimes you forget to take it off in your own home.
Anyway, I enjoyed spending time with this family. I wish I could have gotten to know the middle daughters a bit better. I think with so may children the book was stretched a bit thin in that we didn't get to know all of them as much as I would have liked. And the time jumps were a bit disjointed for my taste. I could have spent a good two books with these characters! -
Terry McMillan is one of my favorite writers. This book is honest and raw. All men should actually read this. The feelings of women can't be more honest than this.
This is the second time I have read the book but I never got bored. I still devoured every word.
The thing with McMillan is that her novels are written in such a way that makes you feel like you are having a heart to heart conversation with the characters.
She does not care about punctuation or grammar or words. She writes the words the way the characters say it. Exhausting to read sometimes but oh so rewarding. -
Mildred Peacock, or Mama, was one of the most memorable characters I have ever encountered. I enjoyed this book immensely.
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Just finished Terry McMillan’s first published novel, Mama (1987). Jail, cocaine, high school dropouts, unwed pregnancies, poverty, alcoholism, drug addiction, arrests, violence, abuse, single parent households, bad checks; what life-robbers some of those words are. How can anyone get beyond having all of those things in one family? That one family lives in a place where almost everyone around them is in the same boat. In this novel, children are born into families where young parents party, drink, and have knock down drag out bloody fights a room away from their kids, listening and cowering in the dark behind closed bedroom doors. It doesn’t sound like the subject matter for a book anyone could endure, much less enjoy. The book is like an epic prose poem on surviving in spite of yourself, and in spite of a world around you that throws up roadblocks faster than dirt flies beneath a hound searching for a buried bone.
Terry McMillan breathes such life into her characters, when they inhale, you are pulled right into the story, as if you were sitting on the living room flowered couch, smelling beans cooking on the stove, and catching up on the latest family drama. The excerpt below is an example of McMillan’s humor:
“Mama had another stroke this morning. Her pressure been going up. They say there was a weak spot in her brain in the walls of her arteries and it swelled up like a bubble and busted. We had to rush her to the hospital.”
“You say Curly had a bubble bust? She in the hospital?” The words were like a faint echo coming from the back of her throat.
“Aunt Mildred, I can’t hear you.”
“I didn’t say nothing.” Mildred said each word slowly, then louder and deliberately. “What hospital she in?”
“Mercy.”
“That’s what she goin’ need.”
Terry McMillan is as strong as her protagonists, and does not rely on the kindness of strangers for her success. At the tender age of 36 she was less than satisfied with the promotion of this, her first book, so she became a marketing department of one, sending out thousands of letters to booksellers. The first run of 5,000 books soon sold out. The rest is history. Be like Terry McMillan. -
This is the first Terry McMillan book I have read, and it will likely be the last. I get it that poverty is a vicious cycle and that it perpetuates ignorance and severely limits people's choices in life, but I couldn't stand any of these characters. I was especially bothered with the title character, Mama, who is just plain verbally abusive to her five children who didn't ask to be born. This book was somewhat well written (except for the all too elementary and obvious names--Deadman, Money, etc.) because it passed my 50 page test, so I actually completed it, but even my favorite character, Freda, was disappointing and inconsistent. There was some suggestion of hope in the book, but it was too little too late after being bombarded with such a display of meanness and stupidity for so many pages. This book did little to enlighten about the human condition, and there was no real point to all of the misery, in my opinion.
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This book was wonderful, when they cried, I cried, when they laughed, I laughed!! I have enjoyed reading Terry McMillan's books from the moment I picked up "Waiting to Exhale" and "How Stella Got Her Groove Back." I love Ms. McMillian's sassiness in her characters and her straight forward, in your face approach.
This book was another hit as far as I am concerned. It was another page turner that I could not put down. I may not have like the characters personally, such as Mama, she needed a swift kicked in the butt. I found her to be very selfish and cold. She whinned to much for me and I would not have given her my forwarding address if I were one of her children. She was a horrible example for her children in a lot of ways. God's hands were helping these children survive and thrive in a desolate place.
Terry, thanks for writing this story. I love your style and wish you continued success. I am looking forward to reading your next book. -
This is my first Terry McMillan novel, and I found it pretty compelling within the slice of life genre. It could definitely be argued that nothing “happens” in the book because there is no real central plot line. A pitch might be something like “Impoverished black family struggles through several decades of substance abuse, the effects of generational poverty, and dysfunctional relationships.” Nevertheless, Mildred (mama) is memorable and quite sympathetic in spite of all of her missteps and failings. I feel like I’ll remember her for years to come. I was rooting for her and all of her kids to succeed, especially her oldest daughter Freda, but I do have to say, the ending felt a little pat. I’ll probably read more from McMillan further down the line. I appreciate her easy unaffected style and how she writes unapologetically for flawed characters.
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It's not for me to enjoy Terry McMillan. I have tried, and I have found that she is like a person who is telling you a story about people you don't care to know at all. When the story is over, you feel like you have wasted your time listening (or reading in this case) to a story about people you don't care.
Because I never get invested in her characters, I don't care for her books. I'm glad that I read this because I found what it was that I do not like about her writing. -
This is a book that I read many years ago and a book that I feel never received its proper celebration. It landed as an honest depiction of many single parent homes with a broken spirited mother, simply trying to hold it together. I loved this book so much!
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Well-written but depressing to me.
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Terry McMillan did an amazing job of showing the struggles most Moms face while raising their kids in poverty. The book is raw, hilarious, awkward and refreshing.
A really great read. -
⭐ 4.5
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I have read Mama at least ten times during my early teenage years and wanted to reread it just to see how I felt about it as an adult.
It is still a beautiful read. I love this story. It reminds me of why I fell in love with McMillan's writing so long ago.
I was surprised by how young Mildred Peacock's character is at the start of the story. She is only 27 with 5 kids and an abusive husband. I'm sure I read this for the first time when I was about 14, so back then I thought 27 was old.
I was also taken aback by the savagery of Crook's abuse. The scene where he is whipping her with a belt as if she is one of the children, while she is crying and apologizing was uncomfortable. Especially knowing that 5 children were listening to this. Mildred defends herself and then follows-up with having loud sex with Crook knowing the children can hear them.
Parents are far from perfect. Mildred doesn't come close, but she has an unwavering love for her children that is clearly illustrated in this story.
Overall, this is a coming of age story and the reader can see growth in almost all of the characters. I never realized how undeveloped Angel and Bootsey's characters are. Angel more than Bootsey, but to be fair there are a lot of characters in this story and it's difficult to dig deeply into each of them.
This book ranks high as one of my favorite and McMillan ranks high as one of my favorite writers. -
I read this book when I was about 9 or 10 years old... It was my introduction to "adult" literature. From that point on, I was hooked. Needless to say, I don't remember specifics, just the feeling and expansive impact it had on me. I'm thankful for that.
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Still my favorite McMillan novel.
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Ups and downs (mostly downs) in the life of this woman and her children. She lives her life too much through her kids, which is depressing. Also always looking for the perfect man. frustrating book
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The story was interesting enough to keep me reading, however, the style of writing gave no definitive climax. This made the book seem to drag on.
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Mama is reminiscent of so many mothers -- me included.
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Characters came to life and are memorable. It feels like they're family - I wanna scold them and root for them at the same time.
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Reading this book is like taking a sip of a full-bodied wine, the story is rich, complex, and leaves a lingering taste and aroma, well after the words have been digested.
This was such a beautiful novel. You'll have no problem at all falling into these characters, their town, their stories. Terry's writing is so exquisite, so descriptive, you vividly see their town Point Haven, you see The Shingle, you see the house, Mildred's house. You also feel the interior world of these characters. You understand their desires, their fears, their hopes, and you root for them.
These characters are full-bodied as is this story. Mama, is a generational story as I see it. We are introduced to Mildred the Matriarch and protagonist. She, Mildred takes us on the journey of a life but not just any life, it's the life of an American, who is poor, who is black, who is a woman.
Mildred changed my view and understanding of what it means to Mother, it's changed I see single mothers that are on welfare. I've gotten a better understanding of what it means to be poor and how those classified as poor see and experience the world. I think the media has a way of stigmatizing these groups and eventually, you only see a statistic or stereotype and forget that under all that data are people, with dreams, and goals, and love.
It was easy for me to love Mildred, she's tough but so full of love, and it's not her nature to wear her heart on her sleeve, but at the end of the day she's a hopeless romantic, and that's so beautiful to see. I loved the relationship between Mildred and Freda it reminded me of mine with my Mother. These women, this family goes through its struggles, and through it all, you hope for them, you pray for them, you fear for them. I was so invested in this story that as we got closer to the end and the trials got greater for these people I began to fear for the worst. And when I arrived at the end I was pleasantly surprised, I was relieved, it gave me hope for life. I will never forget Mildred.
